1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic forms, also called "on-line forms" or "computerized forms." More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method enabling a computer user to conveniently fill-out, configure, and submit a structure of interrelated data fields. The order and type of linking between the fields are user-selected.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the incorporation of computers into virtually every aspect of society, computer users are often confronted with computer-generated forms that must be completed to interact with a computer application. Such computerized forms provide a standard format including a fixed number of data fields, to be filled-out by the user. Depending upon the information to be entered, some users may find it difficult or inconvenient to conform their information to the particular blanks on the form and their relative structure.
In many cases, a user must pass through or skip over many blanks on the form that do not pertain to their entry of information, thereby wasting valuable time. This is the case, for example, where a user wishes to complete two fields of a fifty-field form. In this situation, the following patent application describes one technique that aids the user in constructing, completing, and submitting a customized group of form blanks, thereby avoiding inapplicable form blanks: U.S. application No. 09/124,635, entitled "System for Directly Accessing Fields on Electronic Forms," filed herewith in the names of Reiner Kraft et al, and assigned to International Business Machines Corp. As one example, the foregoing approach may be used to conveniently complete an on-line business expense report.
Certain other applications, however, require computer users to express a complex entry with particularly interrelated form blanks, instead of independent text strings and similar data fields. For example, internet and other database search engines often provide a form page with a predetermined number of coupled data fields, for the user to construct a query using a Boolean expression. In cases like this, some users might experience frustration because the provided page does not contain the desired number or connectivity of data fields for more sophisticated requests. Rather than simply constructing his/her envisioned query, the user is faced with the difficult task of somehow adapting the provided form to implement the query. Thus, such forms lack the power to quickly and easily express the structure and relationships of the user's data.
Consequently, due to certain unsolved problems, the known approaches to computer forms are not completely adequate for more complex form entries with interrelated form fields.